"....and so forth...."

The other night when I attended the Ladies' Night Out event at The Club, I not only got to judge various and assorted desserts, but also observed from the safety of my seat, dancers. Yes, a pair of gentlemen from a local dance studio came to spin the ladies around the dance floor. 


There were only a small number of us there but about a half dozen or so took their turn learning dance steps and even did a line dance. That was so not for Lee or me, but we were content to just chat and watch. Fortunately, we did not have to judge the dancing, too.

I told Lee about the first time I took the ballroom dancing lessons. The guy who was my instructor would end every attempt at dancing with the words "...it's all good". No matter how poorly I did, he would say this. Scott was fortunate he got out of those lessons alive because my patience for such things is quite limited.  He could have gotten upset with my lack of cooperative dancing skills, so we were even. Whenever I think back to those lessons, all I remember is "it's all good". Ugh!

Lee can't stand the expression "have a good one!". This puts her teeth on edge. She reported how one time she heard a very proper foreign man use the expression in English and she about smacked him. "Don't say that!!!" I had to laugh because it is so not polite to smack a foreign person for speaking poor American English!

Connie, the maintenance lady, punctuates every declarative sentence she makes with the phrase, "...and all". Sometime I would like to inquire "and all what?", just to see what she would answer. Likely she is not even aware she says this and also likely she would not stop doing it simply because it annoys me! 

Another common sentence "punctuation" some folks use is "...'nthat..." (means 'and that). Like Connie's phrase, it does not go on to explain '...'n that what???' At the pool activities, one participant regularly uses the expression, "...and so forth" at the end of sentences. I am dying to say, "Yada, yada, yada..." (Seinfeld) sometime but the humor, I fear, would be missed.

                                                   

On the radio show I watch/listen to, one of the hosts is constantly on alert, pointing out the misspeaks and grammatical faux pas of others. Well, yesterday it was his turn to mess up and oh, what great fun the others had with him. I felt somewhat badly for Pat, knowing how I would feel, and do feel, when I mess up or get caught doing something for which I am critical of others. He was going on and on about moving something and needing to use a 'wheel barrel'. Oh, he was so busted! 

The control room played the tape over and over again, rubbing his nose in his using the wrong word.  I had to chuckle because I DID notice it the first time and it clicked in my brain, "Oh, did Pat just say 'barrel' instead of barrow?". Then the show took a nasty turn!! 


All the guys on this same program like to end their declarative sentences with the words "...and everything else..." which is, of course, a grand overstatement. An example would be "Publix sells groceries and everything else..." which is so not true! This might be true for Wal*Mart, but not for Publix. "..and everything else.." annoys me, too!


We must get the plank from our own eye before pointing out the speck in someone else's eye. Or conversation...and so forth!


(p.s. In listening today (Thursday) I heard Pat make a mistake again which the guys did not jump on---he said, "That's the flaw in the oinment..." It's actually 'fly in the ointment', not flaw!) Pick, pick, pick!